This month we’d like to introduce you to Paul Blaik.
I never did sports in my life period. In June of 2014, the company I own had signed up a team for the 2015 Ride to Conquer Cancer. At 39 years old and 230 lbs – I decided in honour of my mother who lost her 8 year battle to cancer at Princess Margaret that I would sign up and train for the unimaginable 200km ride to Niagara Falls. I bought a bike the same day and started riding. That year training a lot changed… I started losing weight, lots of weight and for the first time in my life I actually looked forward to training. By September of that year I began running, I ran the 1st KM of my life at 40! I always knew how to swim, but in my quest to get ready for the Ride to Conquer Cancer I began swimming laps at my gym to cross train.
Through the winter of 2014 I got the crazy idea that I could do a Sprint Triathlon, something unimaginable at that point. I stumbled on the FMCT website in a quest to find a place to learn to swim in open water! That’s when things really took off… I met so many people, people who encouraged me, Irina, Matt, Zindine, Louis, Mellen, etc, etc.. By the time the ride that started my journey actually came to be – I was more than capable of a 200km ride, not only was it an emotional experience, I did the ride, raise a ton of money and was 85 lbs less than the day I bought my bike. With the support of my family, my new found friends I did a Sprint, a Half Marathon, and 2 olympic triathlons only a year after my journey began.
After 2015 I had high hopes, in a moment of insanity I signed up for Ironman Mont Tremblant, and I’d be lying to say I wasn’t in over my head… but again with the support of club members I trained for almost an entire year, with lots of other B-races along the way and on August 21, 2106 I proved “Anything is Possible!” “I was an Ironman”
I continue to train whenever I can, my kids have all began to get involved, my wife Kathleen has become quite the runner herself… We try and make race weekend family adventures, packing up the mini-van and hitting the road. My young kids love supporting their parents crazy adventures and making signs for us, and we love trying to inspire them.